Upon hearing the elven mage's words, the elven assassin said nothing more and quietly retreated behind him like a guard.
Seeing this, the elven mage chuckled and, in front of the Soul Returner, adopted the demeanor of a storyteller:
There's a saying, "Stay close to your friends, but closer to your enemies..."
"What a coincidence, both the Amber Dragon and the Vampire are my enemies—"
He recalled something that seemed to have happened a long time ago, and said:
"About eighty years ago, when I was on Elf Island handling some matters, I suddenly received two letters from friends on the main continent."
"They told me that the seven Vampire Progenitor formed an alliance, and wave after wave of them were trying to sweep the Corpse Tide into every corner of the world."
"They originally wanted to solve the problem on their own and didn't want to contact me, because elves have always been peaceful and uncontested. But this time the vampires have gone too far, and some races have been completely wiped out. So they plan to invite the two of us to join their team and truly kill all the vampire dukes."
"Because something was in the way at the time, we agreed, but didn't go to help immediately."
Wow, you guys are really that amazing!
[ Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop ] accidentally spoke his mind. After all, although this elven mage doesn't seem weak, he always gives people the feeling of "that's all"—strong, but not completely strong.
"Well, if nothing bad has happened on Elf Island these past few years, I should still be considered the Elf King."
The elven mage stated some remarkable fact with ease.
"At the time, I was very busy because the Elven race was facing a full-scale invasion of the Demonic Tide. As a race with high intelligence, the Elves were extremely sensitive to the effects of the Demonic Tide and were very prone to Aberration and then dying quickly."
"Therefore, I must resolve the issues on the island before coming to the main continent; this is something I have to do."
"When we arrived on the main continent, we quickly learned of the deaths of our two friends."
"They died on their way to defeat the Grand Duke, but the funny thing is, they weren't killed by vampires, but by... Amber Dragon."
The elven mage's tone carried a hint of melancholy:
"My two friends did many incredible things when they were young, such as killing a real demon king and ending a century-long war."
"But I wasn't even born then, and by the time I met them, they were already quite old."
"The two old men are not as skilled as before. They were unable to resist the Amber Dragon's sneak attack for long and were eventually defeated."
"As friends, we both have a duty to avenge them, but things don't always go smoothly..."
The elven mage looked at the crowd and asked:
Do you know the concept of a 'pillar'?
Everyone shook their heads; even the elderly Collins knew nothing about it.
The elven mage explained:
" The Authority in this world is based on race, and as the number of individuals in a race gradually decreases, that power will gather towards the surviving individuals."
"This will make the remaining individuals even more gifted, but also more dangerous, because once the last individual of this race dies, the 'pillar' symbolizing Authority will break, the corresponding order will fall into chaos, and the world will be eroded by the Demonic Tide at an accelerated rate."
"This principle was little known at the time, but it was the deaths of my two friends that truly made it spread among the High Tier."
One of them was human, but the other was a White Dragon.
"You've all seen Aeldra's methods before. As an Amber Dragon, he shouldn't have the power of ice and lightning, nor should he have such strong control over Psionic Energy."
"He has his current power because he killed the last White Dragon and spent a long time usurping its Authority."
"And if I'm not mistaken, he's probably 'eaten' more than one dragon by now; there's a high probability that Blue Dragon has also died at his hands."
All the players were astonished upon hearing this, not because they had overheard any secrets, but because they were utterly impressed by the elven mage's reasoning abilities.
Because at this moment, in the five people's field of vision, the usually optimistic and cheerful Pixel Blue Dragon assistant was sitting at the edge of their field of vision, sobbing softly.
Clearly, the unfortunate Blue Dragon was referring to her.
[ On the Do Some Farm Work ] pondered and said:
"Therefore you cannot kill the Amber Dragon, because he already possessed the Authority of two races."
"But is there only one Amber Dragon?"
The elven mage shook his head with a cold laugh:
"Before Aeldra discovered this pattern, there were several Amber Dragon."
The elven assassin, who had remained silent until now, also spoke:
"In addition, we have discovered another pattern: although the death of a descendant of a race will cause the 'pillar' to break, if another being can successfully merge with this power, then the speed of the world's collapse will be slowed down accordingly."
Upon hearing this, everyone understood what had happened.
The Amber Dragon Aeldra not only hunts other dragons who are distantly related to it, but it also spares no one of its own kind.
As long as he remains the only Amber Dragon in the world, no one will dare to let him die; otherwise, the world will collapse even faster.
This feeling is like a charlatan taking on the responsibility of saving the world, using it to blackmail everyone for his own safety, which evokes an instinctive sense of disgust.
The Short-Eared Elf continued:
"We investigated secretly for some time, trying to figure out why Aeldra happened to be in that place to attack the two of them."
"Later we finally found enough evidence to prove that it was Grand Duchess Vanessa who betrayed this information to Aeldra."
"The Amber Dragon was happy to kill a descendant of its own kind who had been in hiding for a long time, and to obtain an exceptionally rare collectible."
"With both old and new grudges, we really want to kill them, but we can't for the sake of this world."
"So the method we chose is..."
The Soul Returner suddenly realized what was happening and said one after another, seemingly lost in thought:
"It's a seal."
The Short-Eared Elf nodded:
"That's right, sealing is the best method; it neither kills them nor causes the world to collapse."
"A half-dead Amber Dragon is a good dragon."
What are your plans?
This time, it was City Lord Collins who raised the question, staring intently at the elven mage:
"I asked you this question eighty years ago, but you said it was a secret at the time."
The elven mage laughed upon hearing this.
"There were a lot of vampires around at the time, and I was indeed worried about leaks, but the plan was really nothing special—the so-called sealing was just to lock the target in place so they couldn't move, right?"